Transcript Document

School of Earth and Environment
INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE
Workshop on the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD)
Sustainable Land Management in Kgalagadi Rangelands
8th July 2014
Project overview
Prof. Lindsay Stringer
[email protected]
Background
• Research funded through the Economics Of Land
Degradation (ELD) initiative: a global study on the
economic benefits of land and land based
ecosystems
• Outlines economic valuation methods and
scenarios, and identifies potential options and
pathways to action that will aid decision-making
on land use, investments, and management
• Case study: Botswana’s Kalahari rangelands; Oct
2013 – June 2014
• Interdisciplinary, cross-continental collaboration:
University of Leeds & Birmingham City University,
UK & University of Botswana
Degradation & ecosystem services
(ES) in Botswana’s rangelands
Rangeland systems are the main source of rural income &
deliver various ES
• Food (livestock, game, veld products)
• Ground water
• Building materials & fuelwood
• Natural medicines (traditional)
• Climate regulation
• Soil erosion protection
• Recreation and spiritual values
Dual threats of poverty & land degradation
• Bush encroachment
• Retreat of grass cover, reduced access to good quality grazing
• Reactivation of previously stable dune fields
• Reduced delivery of ES & economic returns
Project aim
Aim: To assess the costs, benefits and trade-offs
associated with different land uses and management
strategies in rangeland systems
• Brings together economic, social & environmental dimensions
• Uses primary empirical data
along an east-west transect in
SW Botswana covering:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Communal rangelands
Private cattle ranches
Private game farms &
Wildlife Management
Areas (WMAs)
Study area
•
Kgalagadi District of Botswana’s Kalahari
Objectives
1. To assess and outline the socio-economic and ecological
characteristics of the study area
2. To assess both farm and landscape scale patterns of
ecological change including change to green vegetation
biomass and wildlife distributions
3. To identify the ES benefits provided by each land use, and
discuss the costs and trade-offs associated with their
delivery under different land uses and management
4. To assess the trends in market prices (over the period
1975-2013) for the key provisioning ES extracted from the
different land uses; and identify the major political and
economic drivers of particular land use and management
strategies
Valuation methods
• Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) ranked
alternative land use options by quantifying, scoring and
weighting a range of quantitative and qualitative criteria
• Integration of policy and price data analysis with 12
ecological assessments (piosphere based sampling
approach and satellite data), 37 semi-structured interviews,
literature review & secondary data analysis, and benefit
transfer method
Project outputs
• 3 reports: Economic valuation (Multi-Criteria Decision
Analysis), Time-series analysis and Ecology report
• 2 policy briefs
• 2 peer-reviewed scientific journal papers: submitted to
Journal of Environmental Management (Dec. 2013) and
Ecological Economics (June 2014)
• Leeds-hosted ELD project website:
http://see.leeds.ac.uk/research/sri/eld/
• Policy workshop in Gaborone
• Regular project Twitter updates
Policy workshop: key goals
•
Dissemination of project findings to
policy makers from a range of sectors
•
Feedback and discussion about
findings with input from policy audience
•
Identification of research gaps and
elaboration of future research agenda
Many thanks for your
participation